Eats Blog

Were you a fan of the Mexican lasagna at Monica's Aca y Alla? It's on the menu at Monica's Nueva Cocina.

Tomorrow night Monica Greene will soft-open her highly anticipated new restaurant, Monica’s Nueva Cocina, in the Illume development, along with a bar, ME Lounge. Greene let me have a sneak peek at the menu. She’s still tweaking it, so I’m not going to share the whole thing, just some highlights — all subject to change.

It’s very promising and fun. Beyond “queso de Monica” and guacamole, starters include mussels in tomatillo salsa with “homemade green chorizo toasted bolillo,” and sopes de albondigas — not traditional albondigas soup (that would be sopa de albondigas), but little masa cakes topped with meatballs, it would seem, in a tinga poblana with queso fresco. Taquitos dorados de pato sound intriguing, too — duck carnitas taquitos with watercress salad and avocado-tomatillo sauce. And there are three ceviches, all unusual-sounding (one with catch of the day, one with tuna and one with shrimp, octopus, mussels, scallops and crab).